Province warns parents to prepare for full-scale teachers strike

Teachers set to vote on escalated job action

Teachers will vote Monday and Tuesday on whether to move to a full-scale strike.

Photograph by: DARRYL DYCK
, THE CANADIAN PRESS

The province is asking parents to prepare for the possibility that schools will be closed next week as B.C. teachers get set to vote on beginning a full-scale strike.

The last nine days of the school year could be eliminated if teachers vote Monday and Tuesday to escalate their job action and walk out on June 16.

In an information bulletin Sunday, the ministry of education told parents that “every effort is being made to ensure the strike does not disadvantage students, nor delay their transition to the next grade or on to post-secondary,” but added that parents of young children may soon need to make child care arrangements.

The government says students in kindergarten through Grade 9 will still receive final report cards, although they may be abbreviated. Meanwhile, secondary schools will be open for final exams and “every effort” will be made to ensure provincial exams are marked and students receive their final grades.

The ministry told school superintendents in a letter Friday that officials are working with the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association to figure out how to make sure final exams go ahead.

“We appreciate the current labour dispute may disrupt or delay the marking of the written portions of these exams,” the letter states. “In recognition of the heightened burden on administrators as a result of job action, additional mitigation strategies are being explored to address cases where it is not feasible to have the written portion of these exams marked.”

Vancouver school board chairwoman Patti Bacchus said that superintendents are scrambling to figure out how to ensure adequate supervision of exams and determine who is going to mark the tests.

“The logistics of how you would supervise that exam are not defined. We have many students who need special support to write exams — some need to write in a quieter room or some need special education assistant support for scribing or some other need,” she said. “The marking is a whole other kettle of fish. For example, with a course like Socials 11, you need people with fairly current knowledge of that course. You can’t have someone who taught it 10 years ago or some retired administrator.”

Bacchus said cancelling exams wouldn’t be fair to some students who hope to improve their final marks by doing well on provincials.

Final exams begin on June 16 and continue through June 24. All B.C. students must write five provincial exams in order to graduate, but most students going on to post-secondary schools have already been pre-admitted based on their grades to date.

“There is the potential of students facing a picket line, which is a very difficult position to put students in,” Bacchus said. “Many of those students would have parents who are union members or teachers or who are philosophically opposed. I wouldn’t want my kids crossing a picket line.”

The BCPSEA applied Friday afternoon to the Labour Relations Board to vary the terms of the teachers’ essential services order to include final exam supervision and marking and the entering of final grades. A ruling is expected soon.

“I would be surprised if the LRB would declare exams and report cards as an essential service, but it’s hard to predict how these things will go,” Bacchus said. “It doesn’t strike me as something that is a matter of urgency compared to some of the other issues that are at stake.”

She said she would be more concerned about students’ safety or those who rely on meal programs in schools than about students who don’t get a report card.

Bacchus is also concerned about the damage being done to “B.C.’s brand” for attracting international students, particularly at a time when school districts are increasingly reliant on their fees.

“We have international students coming for summer programs. Many of them will already have purchased their tickets and paid for their programs,” Bacchus said. “They need to know if those programs are going to go on.”

The B.C. government issued a news release Friday morning saying that in 2012-2013, 112,800 international students spent $2.3 billion in B.C. on tuition, accommodation and other living expenses, arts and culture, and recreation, which supported almost 25,500 jobs.

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